At that moment, Lucius knew he was finished.
He knew exactly where the diary was: he had sent it to Hogwarts, and now it was part of the Earth's carbon cycle.
Voldemort asked him to bring it, but how could he give it to him?
Sweat beads formed on his forehead.
"Lucius, my friend, what's the matter? Why don't you respond?" Voldemort looked at the silent Lucius and had a bad feeling.
Lucius: ...
If he hadn't seen with his own eyes how Voldemort traveled halfway around the world to capture Karkaroff, he would be fleeing now.
"I... I..." Lucius felt as if his tongue had tied itself up and wouldn't obey him.
"Have you lost it?" Voldemort narrowed his eyes. It was his possession, and after his fall, it wasn't impossible that Lucius had discarded it to distance himself from it.
"No!" Lucius' tongue suddenly started working normally again, and he hurriedly denied, not admitting to having disposed of the diary.
That was crucial.
Suddenly, a perfect excuse came to his mind, one that would silence Voldemort.
"Master, I took it to fulfill your orders." Lucius stepped forward before Voldemort could say anything else.
Voldemort: ???
He did his best to suppress his irritation and listened to Lucius' explanation.
"After you left, I always kept your teachings in mind and took care of the diary diligently, but I can't bear the fact that Hogwarts is tainted by that dirty blood. I remember you once said that this marvelous little book could purify Hogwarts of mudbloods. So when the time was right, I delivered it to Hogwarts..."
Voldemort: ...
He remembered that he had indeed told Lucius that the diary could purify Hogwarts of mudbloods.
Lucius wasn't lying. Although, due to Tom's interference, Lucius couldn't deliver it accurately and it ended up in the hands of the Weasley family, whom Voldemort deeply despised. But ultimately, the diary had entered Hogwarts and caused some commotion.
As for the purpose, who could say for sure? With Lucius's mouth, any explanation made sense. He was the one in control of the situation.
"How many mudbloods were purified?" Voldemort asked a very dangerous question.
Lucius replied unsteadily, "Three people were seriously injured, one of them is still in a coma..."
"So, in the end, no one was purified?" Voldemort exposed Lucius's lie and revealed the truth. Lucius had failed to cause any significant harm despite his hard work.
"With a simple act of striking people with a wand, you achieved no better results?" Anger burned in Voldemort's heart. "And the diary? Has it fallen into Dumbledore's hands?"
Lucius hung his head, not daring to answer.
Seeing Lucius in that state, Voldemort spoke softly, "Or has it already been destroyed by Dumbledore?"
Lucius couldn't bear it any longer and fell to his knees, clutching Voldemort's legs, crying bitterly.
"Master, I..."
Before his tears could touch the hem of Voldemort's robes, Lucius was kicked by him.
"I recall telling you to take good care of it..."
The reason Lucius found was flawless, but he had overlooked one thing: when a high-ranking individual punishes an inferior, no reason is needed.
"Crucio!"
And so, the punishment came.
Voldemort no longer listened to Lucius's explanations but subjected him directly to the Cruciatus Curse.
He watched coldly as Lucius Malfoy writhed on the grass like a fish out of water, with swollen veins and blood vessels on his forehead, and how he crushed the neatly kept lawn.
Lucius's agonizing screams attracted several people and creatures present at the mansion.
Dobby, the Malfoy family's house-elf, also heard his master's screams and, uncontrollably, approached the garden, an instinct inherited from his blood.
According to the rules ingrained in the blood of house-elves by wizards, when their master is injured, they must protect him no matter what, even at the risk of their own lives.
But there are always exceptions.
Dobby was a special house-elf, and the restrictions in his blood were not as rigid. So he could defy his master's will, like when he tried to stop Harry Potter from going to Hogwarts, and he could accept the "dreadful" concept of "salary." Talking about salary was truly wicked for a house-elf.
Thanks to these "awakening" signs in his mind, Dobby didn't run to stop Voldemort after seeing what was happening but kept repeating in his mind:
"Noseless is not torturing my master; he's giving my master a massage."
"Noseless is..."
"Noseless..."
After repeating this several times, Dobby finally managed to calm his inner unease and accept calmly the fact that his master was being cruelly tortured.
"Mr. Noseless is indeed a kind man. He takes care of his master even when he himself is injured, giving him massages." Dobby felt the warmth of the world: there are good people after all!
"Dobby is a useless elf! I didn't notice that Mr. was in so much pain. I should punish myself and scrub the floor three times!" Dobby scolded himself in his mind and hurriedly left the scene.
Why a massage would end up looking like that was easy to understand: his master's body was delicate, and extreme pain did not suit him.
Dobby was an expert at pretending not to understand.
In addition to Dobby, others also heard Lucius's screams. Narcissa Malfoy, the mistress of the mansion, also heard her husband's voice. She knew who the person torturing him like that was, so she didn't rush to the scene immediately but used Apparition to leave the mansion.
She was going to use her connections to save her husband.
Normally, Voldemort only used the Cruciatus Curse for a few seconds to ensure that the victim didn't faint from excessive pain. But today was different; he didn't stop casting the spell once spoken until Lucius fell unconscious.
"Rennervate!"
"Crucio!"
Voldemort used a series of movements to torture Lucius Malfoy, first awakening him and then using the Cruciatus Curse to make him lose consciousness, repeating the cycle again and again.
It was evident that if this continued, Lucius Malfoy would have only one fate: to go insane from the endless torture, just like Neville Longbottom's parents.
Narcissa knew this, which is why she went to find someone, someone who could and would be willing to save her husband.